The validity of his gender idenniny

First, spoiler: the GMC has declined to investigate Az Hakeem.

Now the story of the former patient who tried to get him investigated:

A high-profile Harley Street psychiatrist who calls transgender rights campaigners “trans terrorists” has been reported to the General Medical Council (GMC) after a patient claims he was “attempting to practice transgender conversion therapy”, i can reveal.

Dr Az Hakeem, a fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, calls himself “gender critical” and “the only psychiatrist” to specialise in “exploratory psychotherapy to persons suffering from gender dysphoria”. He has denied being anti-trans, said his service is “neutral”, and denied offering conversion therapy.

But an 18-year-old former patient, a trans man, has accused Dr Hakeem of deploying “coercive strategies” in an attempt to “make me cis[gender]”.

Or in an attempt to persuade her not to wreck her body in pursuit of an impossibility. It all depends on the framing.

Lyle’s complaint to the GMC relates to an assessment he had with Dr Hakeem last year when he was 17. It alleges the psychiatrist used a range of tactics denying the validity of his gender identity – and that of trans people generally.

He felt that the psychiatrist “invalidated my opinions, then imposed his view of gender,” the complaint reads. “He made it clear from the very start that he was sceptical of my gender and expressed doubt that it could differ to [my] sex.”

Lyle accuses Dr Hakeem of disbelieving that his gender identity is male and of trying to encourage Lyle to unpick it in order that he could live as a woman.

Suppose Lyle had told Dr Hakeem her identity is giraffe, or eggplant, or stop sign, or Mongolia, or Donald Trump? Would it have been his medical duty to accept all those claims, one at a time or in a bunch?

There surely has to be some limit to this kind of bullshit in a medical setting. Medical professionals surely can’t – and shouldn’t and mustn’t – be expected to treat all reality-denying claims of patients as true and unquestionable? Especially not psychiatrists? Delusion is a real thing, and not automatically healthy or a guide to happier living.

“He suggested that there was little difference between my gender, and his teen Goth identity, implying that it might fade equally fast. He also likened gender-affirming surgeries to race-imitation surgeries,” wrote Lyle in the complaint. “He asked me ‘why’ I believed I had gender dysphoria, and would not accept that it’s because I’m trans.”

As he should. More of his colleagues should do the same.

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